Rav Kook Torah

Noah: The Age of the Universe

Contradictions between science and Torah appear particularly
irreconcilable with respect to the Torah’s description of the
creation of the world and the beginnings of mankind. Are these
accounts meant to be taken literally? Should we believe that the
universe came into existence some 5,760 years ago? Must we reject
the theory of evolution out of hand?

In a letter written in Jaffa in 1905, Rav Kook responded to
questions concerning evolution and the geological age of the world.
He put forth four basic arguments:

1. Even to the ancients, it was well known that there were many
periods that preceded our counting of nearly six thousand years for
the current era. According to the Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 3:7),
“God built worlds and destroyed them,” before He
created the universe as we know it. Even more astonishing, the
Zohar (Vayikra 10a) states that there existed other species of
human beings besides the ‘Adam’ who is mentioned in the Torah.

2. We must be careful not to regard current scientific theories as
proven facts, even if they are widely accepted. Scientists are
constantly raising new ideas, and all of the scientific
explanations of our time may very well come to be laughed at in the
future as imaginative drivel.

3. The fundamental belief of the Torah is that God created and
governs the universe. The means and methods by which He acts,
regardless of their complexity, are all tools of God, Whose wisdom
is infinite. Sometimes we specifically mention these intermediate
processes, and sometimes we simply say, ‘God formed’ or ‘God
created.’

For example, the Torah writes about “the house that King Solomon
built” (I Kings 6:2). The Torah does not go into the details of
Solomon speaking with his advisors, who in turn instructed
the architects, who gave the plans to the craftsmen, who managed
and organized the actual building by the workers. It is enough to
say, ‘Solomon built.’ The rest is understood, and is not important.
So too, if God created life via the laws of evolution, these are
details irrelevant to the Torah’s central message, namely, the
ethical teaching of a world formed and governed by an involved
Creator.

4. The Torah concealed much with regard to the process of creation,
speaking in parables and ciphers. Creation — which the mystics refer
to as Ma’asehBereishit — clearly belongs to the
esoteric part of Torah (see Chaggigah 11b). If the Torah’s account
of creation is meant to be understood literally, what then are its
profound secrets? If everything is openly revealed, what is left to
be explained in the future?

God limits revelations, even from the most brilliant and holiest
prophets, according to the ability of that generation to absorb the
information. For every idea and concept, there is significance to
the hour of its disclosure. For example, if knowledge of the
rotation of the Earth on its axis and around the sun had been
revealed to primitive man, his courage and initiative may have been
severely retarded by fear of falling. Why attempt to build tall
buildings on top of an immense ball turning and whizzing through
space at high velocity? Only after a certain intellectual maturity,
and scientific understanding about gravity and other compensating
forces, was humanity ready for this knowledge.

The same is true regarding spiritual and moral ideas. The Jewish
people struggled greatly to explain the concept of Divine
providence to the pagan world. This was not an easy idea to market.
Of what interest should the actions of an insignificant human be to
the Creator of the universe? Belief in the transcendental
importance of our actions is a central principle in Judaism, and
was disseminated throughout the world by her daughter religions.
But if mankind had already been aware of the true dimensions of the
cosmos, and the relatively tiny world that we inhabit, could this
fundamental concept of Torah have had any chance in spreading? Only
now, that we have greater confidence in our power and control over
the forces of nature, is awareness of the grandiose scale of the
universe not an impediment to these fundamental ethical values.

To summarize:

Ancient Jewish sources also refer to worlds that existed prior
to the current era of six thousand years.

One should not assume that the latest scientific theories are
eternal truths.

The purpose of the Torah is a practical one — to have a
positive moral influence on humanity, and not to serve as a primer
for physicists and biologists. It could very well be that evolution,
etc., are the tools by which God created the world.

Some ideas are intentionally kept hidden, as the world may not
be ready for them, either psychologically or morally.